Condemns scribe’s murder in Tripura
Guwahati:, 21st September, 2017
Shantanu Bhowmik
Expressing shock at the brutal murder of a young television
scribe in Tripura, the Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) demands a high
level probe into the incident and urges the Manik Sarkar led Left
government at Agartala to book the culprits under the law. The forum
also reiterated its old demand for a special protection law for
scribes on duty.
The reports from Agartala narrate that Shantanu Bhowmik, 29, who was
associated with a local news channel titled DinRaat, faced the attacks
when he went to cover a gory clash between two parties namely
Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) and Communist Party of
India (Marxist)'s tribal wing Tripura Rajaer Upajati Ganamukti
Parishad (TRUGP) at Mandai in west Tripura on 22 September 2017.
Seriously injured Shantanu was taken to a government hospital, but the
attending doctors declared him brought dead.
Shantanu becomes the seventh Indian victim-journalist this year after
the murder of Bengaluru based editor-journalist and social activists
Gauri Lankesh (55) on 5 September last. Prior to her, Haryana based
television journalist Surender Singh Rana (35) was shot dead on 29
July.
The other victims include Kamlesh Jain (42) of Madhya Pradesh (killed
on 31 May), Shyam Sharma (40) also of MP (killed on 15 May), Brajesh
Kumar Singh (28) of Bihar (killed on 3 January) and Hari Prakash (31)
of Jharkhand (killed on 2 January).
India lost six journalists to assailants in 2016, which was preceded
by five cases in 2015. The populous country witnessed murders of two
scribes in 2014, but the year 2013 reported as many as 11 journalists’
murders, where three northeastern media employees also fall victims to
the perpetrators.
The killing of Sujit Bhattacharya (proof reader), Ranjit Chowdhury
(manager) and Balaram Ghosh (driver) inside the office premises of
DainikGanadoot in Agartala broke as sensational news as Tripura had no
recent record of journalist-murders.
“Tripura thus repeated its shameful record on journo-murder after
three years. Shantanu’s killing on duty hours also reminds the
challenge & risks faced by the working journalists of northeast India.
We also extends moral supports to the agitating journalists of Tripura
for their endeavor to justice,” said a statement issued by JFA
president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria.
* This Press Release was sent to e-pao.net by Journalists' Forum Assam (JFA) who can be contacted at tnavajyoti(AT)gmail(DOT)com
This Press Release was posted on September 22 2017
* Comments posted by users in this discussion thread and other parts of this site are opinions of the individuals posting them (whose user ID is displayed alongside) and not the views of e-pao.net. We strongly recommend that users exercise responsibility, sensitivity and caution over language while writing your opinions which will be seen and read by other users. Please read a complete Guideline on using comments on this website.